You have to look at it slant

 

 

 

 

HAPPINESS There’s just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust at your feet having squandered a fortune far away. And how can you not forgive? You make a feast in honor of what was lost, and take from its place the finest garment, which you saved for an occasion you could not imagine, and you weep night and day to know that you were not abandoned, that happiness saved its most extreme form for you alone. No, happiness is the uncle you never knew about, who flies a single-engine plane onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes into town, and inquires at every door until he finds you asleep midafternoon as you so often are during the unmerciful hours of your despair. It comes to the monk in his cell. It comes to the woman sweeping the street with a birch broom, to the child whose mother has passed out from drink. It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker, and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots in the night.         It even comes to the boulder in the perpetual shade of pine barrens, to rain falling on the open sea, to the wineglass, weary of holding wine. ~ Jane Kenyon ~     Happiness turned up the other day as I worked on Doff's afghan**. Unbidden. Just showed up out of nowhere as the slow, fat, crochet hook slid in and out of stitches.. yarn over, insert hook into next stitch, pull up loop (three loops on hook), pull loop through loop on hook, yarn over, pull loop through loop on hook, yarn over, pull loop through two remaining loops on hook.. repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.  Happiness manifested as a glow in my chest and radiated out.. I didn't know what was happening at first.. Then I did. When that happened, I thought "Wow. I'm happy." And that was my mistake. In an instant it dissolved and the normal daily lineup of perseverations flooded back in..  It was there for a while though..  ** Yes - I know. Crocheting an afghan in July seems insane. I mitigate the insanity by piling the work next to me instead of on my legs as I crochet.. As soon as I finish it, Doff will use it. She has been blessed with the ability to feel chilly in anything under 80F.

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